“Say yes,” he urged. “Say yes and then you don’t need to… to…”
“Are you offering because there might be a baby?”
“What? No. I mean, yes because you needn’t rush away, but I planned to do this.”
“When?”
“What?”
“When did you start planning to propose to me?” And why was she arguing with him? He had finally, gloriously offered her exactly what she wanted. Marriage! And yet she could not stop the questions. “When did you decide, Aaron? Was it last night when we… Is it your honor that is forcing you to propose? Because you bedded me?”
“No.” He pulled back from her without rising from his knee. “I’ve been thinking of it for a while, but last night decided it.”
“When we made love?”
“Before that.”
“When you saw me with other men?”
He opened his mouth to speak but then snapped it shut with a frown. Then he cleared his throat like he was beginning a speech. “Lilah, those details don’t matter. You’ve said you love me. I’m offering to marry you. Now you say, yes.”
She bit her lip. She wanted to say yes. She wanted to throw her arms around him and give him exactly the answer he demanded. It was what she wanted! And yet, the words would not come. Instead of gleefully accepting him, she took an incomprehensible step back.
“Lilah?”
“Do you know that Mrs. Dove-Lyon has had several offers of marriage? She’s refused them all.”
Aaron blinked in confusion as she pulled her hands out of his.
“What use to me is a man? That’s what she says. She makes her own money, she makes her own decisions, she runs a business—all without a husband.”
Aaron’s hand dropped down to his side. “What does Mrs. Dove-Lyon have to do with anything?”
She wasn’t exactly sure. Not in a way that she could express right now. But it was important. Just as the way he had proposed to her was important. He hadn’t said he loved her, and he’d ordered her to accept.
“I gave up theton. I’m a shopkeeper now.”
“But you don’t have to be. You can be a countess. You can bemycountess!”
He was getting angry. She knew so much of his body now and he had not even pulled on a shirt. He knelt before her wearing only his falls, and she still could not believe she stood apart from him. He was everything she’d ever wanted. She loved him. And yet, she could not say yes.
“What of your career?” she asked. “What of the damage to you for marrying beneath you?”
He winced, but he did not look away. “We can marry quietly. You need not be in the public eye. Certainly, I will not have the benefit of a political wife, but I have managed so far without that. I’ll find a way to continue.”
“You’ll stash me away in the country, perhaps, like your father did with your mother?”
He nodded. “Yes, that will work. So long as I don’t turn to bitterness and you don’t get angry at me, we shall rub along well, don’t you think? You’re not like my mother, and I’m not my father. We won’t turn out like them.”
That will work?Good God, had he really just said that? “What of my registry office?”
He winced, his expression unhappy. “I know that’s important to you. I know how hard you work there, and of course you can continue for a while.” He pushed up to his feet, his brow tight as he continued to think out loud. “Yes, I can see allowing you to continue for a while, but you’ll have to give it up eventually.” He cast a besotted smile at her belly. “Once the babies begin, you’ll need to care for them. You’ll have help, of course, but you’ll be a countess. You can’t run a registry office and be a countess at the same time. And even if it were possible, what would we tell the children? That their mother wasworking?” He chuckled at the very idea. “No,” she echoed softly. “I can’t be both, can I?”
He smiled as he stepped forward, reaching again for her hands. “So it’s decided? I’ll have to travel home to get the ring from Mother.” He rolled his eyes. “She’ll be furious, of course, but I don’t care. I’m a man who can choose his own bride.”
She searched his face wondering what she was looking for. “You can’t even admit that you love me.”
His eyes widened before he exhaled in relief. “Is that what this is all about?” He smiled at her. “I love you, Lilah. I will marry you.”